Advantages of Stainless Steel Waterless Cookware: Waterless Cookware Facts
Most of us grew up learning to cook with water, fats, oils and high heat. We now know that both the nutritional value and the full flavor of our foods disappear, to a large degree, when cooked by these conventional methods. In search of healthier ways to prepare foods, you may now be researching waterless cooking and waterless cooking cookware .
Since quality waterless cookware is made of high grade stainless steel, you are likely asking yourself, why is that important? Why is 304 Surgical Stainless Steel considered the best material for cookware? The advantages of stainless steel cookware can really be categorized into seven main items:
Advantages of Waterless Cooking with 304 Surgical Stainless Steel
•Vitamin and Mineral Retention •Sustainability / Durability
•Elimination of Cookware Toxins / Corrosion Resistance
•Efficient Heat Transfer
•Flavor Protection
•Easy to Clean & Care For / Dishwasher Safe
•Affordable
1. Vitamin and Mineral Retention: Our daily diet often lacks the essential nutrients necessary to achieve and maintain good health.
•Minerals are essential for 90% of our bodily functions. You can not absorb vitamins if your body does not have the necessary minerals it needs.
•Mother Nature designed foods to give us everything we need. Thus, our food naturally contains abundant flavor, vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes, and appetizing color.
•As our soil becomes more depleted of natural minerals, less is passed on to us in our food. Today it is critical to retain the maximum possible amount of minerals and vitamins in the foods we consume.
•Cooking fresh fruits and vegetables decreases their food value. Many important vitamins and minerals are dissolved in water, so when food is placed in water, nutrients are drawn out of the food and go into the water. With waterless cooking, food does not come into direct contact with the water so there is only a 2% average mineral and vitamin loss. This means that you retain 98% of the nutrients normally found in your food instead of dissolving them in water or boiling them away.
•Important nutrients are lost when food is exposed to high temperatures but they are retained when exposed to lower temperatures, such as those used in the waterless cooking method.
•Steaming vegetables breaks down cellulose and alters the plants’ cell structures so that fewer of your own enzymes are needed to digest the food. This dramatically increases their potential digestibility and nutrient absorption.
•Recent studies confirm that the body absorbs much more of the beneficial anti-cancer compounds (carotenoids and phytochemicals—especially lutein and lycopene) from cooked vegetables compared with raw vegetables.
•An added advantage of waterless cooking (in addition to maximum vitamin and mineral, natural flavor and appetizing color retention) is that you can cook without oil or grease thereby lowering your cholesterol.
•Research on the aging process, like that coming out the US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, suggests that maximizing the nutritional quality of your diet may slow down or prevent age-related problems that many people think of as inevitable. The studies recommend cooking foods for a short time and in as little water as possible, with no added oils.
The following chart reveals an approximate percentage of a few of the vitamins and minerals that are lost through different cooking methods:
Boiling
Pressure Cooking
Waterless Cooking
Iron
48.9%
17.4%
2%
Calcium
31.0%
12.0%
2%
Phosphorus
46.4%
19.4%
2%
Magnesium
44.7%
21.1%
2%
This chart is based on the average percentage of mineral losses for all vegetables from "University of Wisconsin, Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 17, No.5"* Ref.: Paul R. McCann, Food Specialist, Author of the book "The Science of Nutrition"
2. Sustainability / Durability: More and more people, trying to adopt principles of green living or sustainability, are actively seeking ways to incorporate this ideal into every aspect of their lives. In the kitchen, they feel that if they are going to cook green and organic foods, they want to use eco-friendly cookware as well. 304 Surgical Stainless Steel is the perfect eco-friendly cookware because:
•Stainless Steel has a long service life: Why discard used pots and pans every few years when you can buy a set that will last a lifetime? Stainless Steel cookware is tough; it is not prone to chipping, rusting or staining as long as you properly care for your stainless steel. In tests, stainless steel cookware sets lasted four to ten times longer than cookware sets made with lighter materials (such as aluminum, copper or lesser grades of stainless steel). Should you need to discard your stainless steel cookware, it’s 100% recyclable thereby completing its life cycle to be used again.
•Stainless steel needs less maintenance and its hygienic qualities means we do not need to use harsh cleaners to get a clean surface – there is little or nothing to dump into the drain that could have an environmental impact.
•The longevity of Stainless steel is the result of its alloying composition and it has a natural corrosion resistance – nothing has been added to the surface that could add additional material to the environment. The metal itself will last a long time.
•You cook using less energy: Cooking with waterless cookware is accomplished with economical low heat. Energy savings comes from using only medium heat to begin cooking and then, once the steam valve begins to whistle, reducing the heat to low or turning it off to complete the cooking process. Just as the insulation in your house does its job, this cookware saves money over the years on utility bills. You can even cook your turkey dinner or a cake on the stovetop - you may never pay to heat your oven again.
3. Elimination of Cookware Toxins: We are bombarded with toxins 24 hours each day in the forms of air, water and ground pollution. We also bring toxic chemicals into our homes through a variety of different consumer products. Is your cookware putting toxins into your body? By using cookware with an outer layer of 304 Surgical Stainless Steel, you would never have to worry about your pots and pans harming the health of your family. There are over 150 grades of Stainless Steel. But, 304 Surgical Stainless Steel is perfect for cookware because:
•304 Surgical Stainless Steel withstands corrosive actions of acids found in fruits, meats, milk and vegetables. •The chromium in 304 Surgical Stainless Steel combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to form a thin layer of chrome-containing oxide. If the metal is cut or scratched and this layer of oxide is disrupted, more oxide will form and recover the exposed surface, protecting it from oxidative corrosion. •Hospitals use surgical stainless steel because it can be kept clean and sterile. Since stainless steel is one of the most hygienic surfaces for the preparation of your food, it is not likely to harbor bacteria and germs.•Waterless cookware made of high quality 304 surgical stainless steel not only preserves the vitamins and minerals of all of your foods but also allows you to cook in a way that avoids the carcinogens from charring the meats and the toxins formed when meats are browned, fried or barbequed at high temperatures. •Low heat waterless cooking avoids the creation of acrylamides, the most generally recognized of the heat-created toxins, which are not formed when food is boiled or steamed. •Unlike Teflon cookware, you do not have to worry about the particles of the pan coming loose over time and entering your food or about the toxic fumes that form when the cookware is overheated.
4. Efficient Heat transfer: Gas and electrical stoves do not uniformly spread the heat source over the pan’s bottom. With gas stoves, the gas comes out at regular intervals but forms a ring of individual flames. With electrical stoves, the heating elements create patterns of heat. Both result in unevenly applied heat which can burn or scorch foods. The cook is left to compensate for this uneven distribution of heat through the cooking technique (e.g. cooking with water) or the cookware itself. Quality waterless cookware is specifically designed to transfer low heat across the bottom of the pans and up the sides to heat the food in all directions. This results in food basting in its own juice retaining 98% of the natural flavors of the food you are preparing.
•While stainless steel is important for the outer construction of the waterless cookware, the stainless steel itself is not the component that transfers the heat. Good quality waterless cookware relies on the inner layers of aluminum or iron to conduct the heat across the bottoms and up the sides of the cookware itself. This allows heat to efficiently cook the food from all directions while maintaining food contact with the stainless steel layer. This efficient transfer of heat throughout the pan makes stack cooking possible.
•The bottom of the cookware is flat so it hugs the burner to ensure maximum heating efficiency during the entire cooking process as well as extra strong and rigid to prevent warping.
•The inside of the pan bottoms have a heat-diffusing satin finish.
•The covers are heavy enough that they are not pushed up by the steam collecting inside.
5. Flavor Protection: We eat the food we enjoy and you’ll enjoy the way your food tastes when prepared the waterless and greaseless cooking way using stainless steel cookware.
•Quality stainless steel cookware, with at least five plies, does not allow tastes from the metal to leach into the food. The inner layers create an even heat flow while the outer stainless steel layer protects the food from the corrosive properties of the inner layer metals.
•Waterless cookware creates a vapor-seal during the cooking process. This makes the cookware self-basting. The steam forms in the pan, rises to the lid then falls back again and again into the food. This keeps your food moist and juicy. Avoid peeking inside the pan because as long as you don’t lift the lid, the food is able to cook in its own natural liquids making it a more nutritious and flavor-filled meal.
•With greaseless cooking, you don’t have to add oil. Cooking with oil coats your food with oil which inhibits the caramelizing of your vegetables thereby preventing the natural flavors from being released into your foods.
•The chromium in 304 Surgical Stainless Steel combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to form a thin layer of chrome-containing oxide giving it “self-healing” abilities. If the metal is ever cut or scratched disrupting this layer of oxide then more oxide will form and recover the exposed surface, protecting it from oxidative corrosion. 6. It’s easy to clean: With the smooth, hard finish of stainless steel, this waterless cookware is as easy to clean as it is beautiful to look at.
•The easy cleaning ability of stainless steel makes it the first choice for strict hygiene conditions, such as hospitals, kitchens, abattoirs and other food processing plants. •With proper use, ordinary washing will keep it immaculately clean. The durable mirror finish on the outside and satin finish on the inside will look as good in thirty years as it did the day you unpacked your new cookware set from its box. To learn more about how to clean your cookware click here: Cleaning my waterless cookware
7. Affordable: Stainless steel cookware sets can be quite expensive, costing well over $2000 per set. Many of these sets are sold at state fairs or home shows, requiring a sales staff to promote the product which, in turn, drives up the price. However, there are many quality stainless steel cookware sets that you can purchase for between $200 and $300. These sets have all the great features of the expensive sets: durability, a waterless option, multi-ply for even heat distribution, manufacturer warranties, etc.. Through ChoiceCookery.com you buy quality waterless cookware directly from the manufacturer. Your cookware will be delivered from the manufacturer to your door at the lowest possible price with proof of the manufacturer’s guarantee.
because there is so much info out there and I know most people here seem to have great advice in this area and I am being told I should ask these questions here as well?!. *be patient please* I am a newbie and trying to learn. :\ :/ 
:)
but that's not the case. I should have looked up the manufacturer that HellFire listed instead of just any anodized set. Sorry for any confusion there. 
Thankfully, I do have a small old cast iron that I've been using more now since I begun my research. All my sauce pans, fry pans and electric skillet had to go. A quick look at them told me I was feeding my family teflon daily, and it seems to me that replacing these pieces would be one of the first steps I needed to take.
You've gotta be kidding me :/ 
